Coming together
by esama
Summary: ABANDONED. When half of Atemu was locked away in ancient times, something was left behind
1. Coming together

**Coming together**

The other was gone now. He, she, it, whatever it was, didn't know where the other went but the other was gone and the way things were now was wrong. The other was supposed to be there, right beside it, right against it, and right with it. That was the only way to be, that was the way they were meant to be… but the other was gone and the one was left behind like something unneeded, something worthless, something to be thrown aside.

Last rays of evening sun poured over the dynes and ruins of great civilisation. It looked at the light, feeling right and empty in the same time. It knew that the other had gone into the darkness while it had been left in light. And in away that was right. And wrong, because together they could've walked in the light and darkness and all the shades in between.

But it knew, oh it knew more than well enough, that there was nothing it could do. Just remain here and feel the longing, the absent, the whole right in its existence. He mused that to human the feeling might have been something similar to missing one's limbs. The feeling was horrible and it would never truly overcome it, but it would get adjusted to it, just like human could get adjusted to loss of a limb. It wouldn't become better and it wouldn't heal, but it would adjust and the longing would become part of its life - whatever life it had anyway.

So it watched the sunset and mourned the loss of the other, wishing that one day they would be united again and things would be right again. When the sun had fallen underneath the horizon, it fell into uneasy slumber to be wakened up with the sun's rising in the next day. And when the sun would set in the next day, it would fall asleep again to be wakening again in the following morn.

As the cycle of night and day, sleep and awake established, it watched over the humans left behind when it and other had been torn apart. It watched a tall man take a crown and people rebuild from ruins. It watched their rising above their past and how they begun anew, never forgetting but overcoming nonetheless. Houses, temples and a palace were built. Night and day passed after each other in continuous flow. Years passed and it watched from the light of the day, unseen by humans, unseen by animals, unseen by all.

Tall man died and another took the throne. The civilisation prospered and eventually came down to ruin. It was natural, it mused to himself as he watched the great city unravel to rocks and sand through the ages. All things pass, light and life included. Times shifted and changed, humanity grew and warred, things evolved. Religions beliefs and new ideals came and went, and suddenly it and the other were part of the past grind between old and new, lost in the sands.

Leaving the sands, it travelled, following the humans for its sad amusement. Nothing better to do, it watched how nations grew and fell, how times went… but eventually it returned back to the sands, to the place where it's other slept within the other's golden grave and prison. Waiting for a chance. Waiting for a miracle.

It took eons for it to come, but it did. In form of a man looking for excitement from the other's tomb. It followed the man as the man did what no other had managed to do before - challenged and won against the game which had kept the other safe in the tomb for long time. So happy about this chance, it even helped the man to survive when the man's companions betrayed him, helped him to the golden prison. And when the man took the golden prison with him, it followed, silent and unseen.

But, though the man managed to defeat the game of the tomb, he could not beat the prison. For a long while the man tried, to fail. Yet there was still hope, because the prison was out. So it stayed and waited, watched how the man had children, hoping that the man's son would be able to defeat the prison - but he couldn't either. The man's son had a wife who begun the process of bearing children… yet it could feel that something was wrong.

Having lived for so long in light and life, it knew when there was no true life in something and the baby in the woman's womb would not live. Not in the way human children were supposed to. For the child had no soul, and without it the child would die upon birth. In here, it found it chance. Maybe it was selfish and cruel, it didn't know, but it was so desperate to defeat the prison and release it's other, that it took the spot where the child's soul should've been.

And it became a he and after his birth he was named as Yugi Mutô, which he found to be most suiting name. In the years of patiently waiting for his infant body to grow up enough to complete the task he was longing to do, he could tell that the woman who had given his body birth and the man who had seeded him could tell that there was something different with him. He did not blame them when they left him with the man who had originally fond the golden prison. He was thankful for it, actually. Maybe the man, now old and grey, could tell something was different as well, but the old man did not care. And again he, Yugi, was thankful.

And eventually, when the old man deemed him old enough, he was given the golden prison as a gift. "I couldn't beat it, but I have a feeling that you can," the old man said when he didn't know that Yugi was listening. After thoroughly thanking the old man, Yugi challenged the prison with all intention of releasing his other.

It took eight years, but when he finally managed to defeat the prison, it was well worth it. It inside him embraced its other and finally two pieces of one whole came together.

---

This thing has been in my mind for a while. When pharaoh's "darker half" was locked in the puzzle, what exactly happened to the lighter half which eventually became Yugi? I'll probably write more versions about this thought, because I'm not entirely satisfied with this ficklet, it doesn't do the idea justice.


	2. After death

**After death**

The boy was born dead. Still to this day Sugoroku could remember that horrible moment, when he and his son had been waiting for the birth of another generation of Mutôs… only to have the child come to their world silent and still. It had been one of those "world crashing in on you" moments, as they had stared at the still figure in the doctor's hand in horror and shock. No matter how in denial they had been, the boy had been very much… dead, and thus the boy's time of birth and death was 11:59, fourth of June, nineteen-eighty-one.

But by 12.00, the boy was breathing again - taking big gulps of air actually, as if he had been diving and now was starving to get some air into his lungs. Miracle, the doctors had whispered before rushing to tend the untended baby, cleaning, weighting, measuring, taking the body temperature, everything. They never told to the boy's mother that her son had been dead full minute after being born, but the fact still remained. Yugi gained his life after being born and dying.

Later, it didn't take a genius to see that Yugi wasn't like other babies. Whilst doing baby like things like eating and pooping, Yugi never cried or wailed. When he was hungry he made certain king of whimpers, when his diaper needed to be changed the whimpers were slightly different, but no one ever heard Yugi cry. Not even when he was teething, when he got sick, even when he got infection he was mostly silent.

Another thing which made Yugi different was his eyes. The fact that they were purple wasn't anything overly special - Sugoroku's own eyes weren't that normal either - but that knowing look upon those eyes, that was special. The boy looked around with eyes which seemed to understand everything - occasionally he had even mischievous look about those wide purple eyes. He also seemed to be able to understand talking, Sugoroku swore that he once caught his grandson reading the newspaper, though to anyone else it had looked like Yugi had just innocently sat on it.

The more Yugi grew both the stranger and more normal he got. He stopped looking knowing, he stopped appearing to be listening, and Sugoroku didn't catch him reading again, but the old man could tell that the boy was smarter beyond his years. Yugi had just started to hide his strangeness - started to realise that it was making everyone uncomfortable.

But he started acting normal too late. No matter how Yugi's parents had tried to deny their son's strangeness, tried to deny that it bothered them, it had. By the time Yugi was one and half, they had left the boy entirely to Sugoroku's care, unable to act normally around child as strange as Yugi was, unable to care for him knowing that the boy knew well enough to care for himself.

Sugoroku, however, was too old and had seen too many strange things to be entirely put off. Instead he accepted that maybe that minute of death had made his grandson a little different. Yugi was special and that was all there was to it. He only had to get adjusted to it, that's all.

One of the things which eased this adjusting was the fact that no matter how un-childlike Yugi was, he had a _very_ childlike love for games and puzzles. When surrounded by those games, Yugi seemed to be just another child - and so what if he, a two year old, could solve a Rubik's Cube within ten minutes? It wasn't like any other of the dozens of mechanical puzzles gave Yugi any harder time.

Yugi grew slowly, inheriting the stature of his less than tall grandfather. The boy didn't seem to mind, though - almost as if he had been expecting it a little. When the other kids in the playground picked him on because he was the smallest kid, he didn't really seem to care. He didn't cry or pout or get mad when he was pushed around, he didn't scream for help or cry for revenge. No, Yugi simply stood up and walked away, every time. In his childlike voice he would later say that he didn't want to fight, that he didn't like violence. Somewhere in the back of his mind voice told Sugoroku that Yugi just didn't bother with it, the boy just didn't care about fighting or bullying, the nasty words didn't bother him because they had no meaning to him.

What made Sugoroku give _the_ Puzzle to Yugi when the boy turned seven, he wasn't sure. It just felt right. And by the look of the smile Yugi gave to him after unwrapping the golden box in which the pieces were, Sugoroku knew that he had done the right thing. He knew that it was that Puzzle Yugi had been waiting for, when solving all those puzzles before.

After that, rare was the day when Yugi didn't fiddle those golden pieces in his hands. But he didn't seem to be able to solve it, and it gave lot of heartache to the boy. More than once Sugoroku found his grandson with defiant look about his face and unshed tears in his eyes as he was still trying his hardest to solve a game which hadn't been solved in three thousand years. Yugi never lost his patience, though. He always tried again and again, trying the pieces against each other to see if they matched. He never gave up - took breaks, but never really stopped. That golden Puzzle was all there was for Yugi.

Sugoroku was and wasn't surprised when upon entering the school, Yugi _wasn't_ the top of his class. He was surprised because he knew that his grandson was what could only be called a prodigy, a child genius. And he wasn't surprised because he also knew that test scores meant nothing to Yugi - and Yugi liked to appear average. Ever since his parents had shied away, the boy had presumed that by pretending to be normal, he seemed less frightening to people around him. In away it was true, but Sugoroku still felt a little sad for him, hoping that he could be just who and what he was without fear or persecution.

Yugi didn't get friends. That wasn't entirely surprising. While Yugi was kind, patient and full of all good things, he was very strange. He preferred puzzles and board games to running around in the school yard, he liked to shuffle cards instead of doing what the other kids like to do. He didn't care about cars of other motor vehicles, he rarely watched TV… he and the other boys had nothing in common in terms of hobbies. The girls didn't like him either, so Yugi was always the odd one out - not that he seemed to mind.

Why Anzu became Yugi's friend, Sugoroku wasn't sure. It certainly wasn't anything Yugi did because his grandson still acted the same as ever. Perhaps it was something about Anzu - maybe she had felt guilty about the way others had treated Yugi or maybe she could see the hidden potential, maybe she was just blindingly good person, who knew. Somewhere along the way, the girl just started to protect Yugi from the school bullies and Yugi started to lean little to the direction of liking her friendship, instead of preferring to be alone. Yet even then he never forgot the Puzzle, even with her there the puzzle was the priority.

Years passed, Yugi never gave up. Sugoroku wasn't sure exactly what happened on that night when Yugi finally did solve the puzzle, but it was a special night. A boy Sugoroku had never seen or heard of before came, dribbling wet, to bring a piece of the Puzzle to Yugi, telling that Yugi had gotten into little bit of trouble with someone. When delivering this piece to Yugi, Sugoroku found his grandson depressed in front of _almost_ completed golden Puzzle. He had never seen the boy as happy as he had been upon finding out that the old man had the final piece.

And after that night, after Yugi completed the Puzzle… nothing was the same again. After that night Sugoroku finally understood just how special his grandson was and why that Puzzle had been so precious to the boy. Because when the Puzzle came together, so did Yugi - whole for the first time after death.

---

This one can be considered as continuing to the first one or completely different thing, but the idea behind is pretty much the same. I like this one better than the first one, though.


	3. After waiting

**After waiting**

When Anzu had met Yugi for the first time - or _seen_ as it hadn't actually been a meeting - she, like many others, had thought that he was short and strange looking. Who had hair or eyes like Yugi anyway - well, ignoring his grandfather? As he had taken seat in the classroom, she like many others had decided to simply ignore him. She had friends and did well in her studies so why would she need to pay attention to some short oddball.

Yugi's bullying started the next day. Seeing that no one had befriended with the short kid, the biggest kids thought that it would be good to roughen him up a bit. The fact that Yugi hadn't done anything to fight back had seemed only to anger them until they finally dropped Yugi to the floor before walking away. Anzu hadn't been the only one who had seen Yugi calmly, albeit slowly, pick himself from the floor, wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth and walk away like nothing had happened at all.

Yugi never cried. Even when a fist contacted his middle section harshly, there were no tears in his eyes. He even smiled after the bullies had left him to collect himself. Sometimes Anzu got the strangest feeling that Yugi didn't actually _notice_ the bullying. That he was somewhere else when it all happened - or that he had some incredible way of just ignoring it all. However it was, Yugi never showed any sadness or pain for it, before and after acting all normal. Even when the teachers asked Yugi about the bullying, the short boy would just shrug his shoulders uncaringly.

If that wasn't strange, then what Yugi did in school itself was. Yugi's school performance was what one could only call average, nothing too poor and nothing out of the ordinary. Occasionally he seemed to struggle a bit with some things, but not very often. He excelled in nothing and thus the teachers paid no special attention to him. Yet Anzu had seen one time, when Yugi had been in the school library, how Yugi had been sitting in the corner, reading a book about philosophy - which would've been fine and normal, except for the fact that Yugi was eight at the time. When she saw Yugi with book algorithm, she knew that Yugi wasn't doing his best in the classroom, not even closely.

The more she watched Yugi, the more she came into the conclusion that school, the teachers and student in there, friends or bullies… they meant nothing to Yugi. While in school Yugi would find his way to pass time with card games and pair of dices, as if hoping for the hours to pass quicker. As unexcited as he was about many things, Yugi was always first to rush out of the door and towards home.

It wasn't until they were ten when Anzu realised just how special Yugi was. She had been in her way to school when she had seen Yugi standing underneath a tree with something in his hand. At first she had thought that it was garbage, fist full of twigs… but then she had seen that it had been a small bird's nest and that it had three small eggs in it. When she had seen the small bird sitting on Yugi's shoulder, she had hidden behind another tree not to frighten the bird and to see what Yugi would do with the bird and the nest

Yugi had raised his hands his up, holding the nest gently in them. As Anzu had watched, the nest had first begun to hover, and then gently rise towards the branches upon. Shocked, she had stared how the nest had lodged itself into crook in one of the branches and how the bird and chirped its thanks to Yugi before flying up to the nest. "Pick a sturdier spot next time," Yugi advised the bird, before gathering his book back and heading towards school, never noticing Anzu who stared after him in amazement.

After that Anzu had kept a closer eye on Yugi. Yet nothing had seemed to be different. Yugi was still average in school, he still had no friends, and he was still bullied. If Yugi had powers like the one he had used on the bird's nest, why was he living the life he was living? Why did he tolerate being pushed around if he had the power to make it stop?

If Anzu had been older around the time, she might've kept what she had found to herself ad pondered it alone. Yet, she was ten and she was very curious and confused ten-year-old. So she asked the same question which was bothering her from Yugi. "I saw what you can do. If you you're really smart enough to understand algorithm, if you can make things _fly_… why do you let them beat you up like they do?"

Yugi simply smiled at her gently before shaking his head. "Because it's not my place to do so."

"_What_?" Anzu stared at him with confusion. "Not your _place_? What are you talking about? They have no right to treat you like that and you have the power to make them stop --"

"But what right do I have to use that power against them?" Yugi asked calmly while standing up from the bench he had been sitting. "It would be unfair."

"_Unfair_?" Anzu hadn't really understood back then. "How it is unfair to defend yourself from their ilk?!"

Yugi chuckled and shook his head. "You're still a child and you can't understand, but in the world there are things like right and wrong. What they are doing is wrong in a certain level, but how right would it be for me to use my upper hand against them? Unlike against fists and feet, you cannot defend yourself against the powers I have."

Yugi stood up. "Don't worry about me," he said with a smile while turning to leave. "They can't truly hurt me anyway."

Anzu hadn't understood and what Yugi had said didn't make her feel any better about the way the bigger kids were treating Yugi. It was wrong, so wrong, and if Yugi wasn't going to do anything against it, then she would. With a determination she joined the martial arts club so that she could do what Yugi didn't - defend the boy against the bullies.

The first time she stood between Yugi and the bullies - and made the bullies leave with sharp words and raised fist - she turned to Yugi and asked somewhat snappily. "Is what I did unfair too?"

"No," Yugi shook his head. "Because what you did is something they can do too."

"Does this mean that if they would have powers like yours, you would raise against them?"

"Maybe," Yugi had just smiled again and walked away.

Encouraged by what the boy had said, Anzu continued what she had dong. She started to hang out with the strange short kid - and so what if her other friends thought that she was doing a mistake? In the end, Yugi was much more interesting company that they were. Yugi was like an adult in kid's body, he understood world in ways Anzu knew she never would understand, and because of that it was utterly fascinating to talk with the boy. Yugi had a mellow way of looking at the world, he always something good in everything and nothing was unworthy in his eyes.

"Do even these things have meaning?" Anzu asked while grimacing at a spider climbing in the backrest of the bench they were sitting on.

"Of course," Yugi said while picking the small beast to his finger and gently placing it down to the grass so that it wouldn't bother the girl. "Like with many other insects people usually overlook, spiders too have their place in the ecosystem - and in the food chain. Without these things, the chain would be imbalanced."

"And what would be bad, because…?" Anzu asked with confusion

"Because we would all die if it wasn't in balance," Yugi smiled gently. "Nothing is without proper meaning."

From Yugi Anzu learned lot about life's untold facts, things they didn't teach in school. He was like the wise man of a fantasy story, trying to teach the blockheaded student that there was more to the world than what they could see with naked eye. Though these "teachings" were far and wide apart, an in company Yugi would play the part of average weird kid, the longer Anzu spend with the boy the more certain she got that Yugi wasn't like the rest of them.

"Do you know why people feel pain?" Anzu asked one time after his martial art's practice where a bigger kid had given a bruise to her shoulder.

"Pain warns of something being wrong," Yugi said calmly while resting his hand over her darkening bruise. "This time it tells you of injury, that your smallest blood veins have been damaged and that blood is seeping into the tissue. Pain, like all things, is necessary…" he removed his hand to reveal that the bruise as gone. "In most cases, pain doesn't last of long though."

Anzu stared at her now healed shoulder and realised that the pain was gone. "You can heal bruises?"

"And other things," Yugi smiled.

The girl looked thoughtful, remembering one elder girl from their school whom she had seen crying about something that had happened - crying because of heartache. "Sorrow causes people to cry, and people cry when they're in pain, right? Can you heal pain people can feel in their heart?" she asked curiously.

"I don't think so," Yugi shook his head sadly. "Emotional wounds are different from physical. Sometimes only time can heal those."

Sometimes Anzu thought that Yugi had an emotional wound. Sometimes he had same look on his face as that elder girl had had - heartbroken look of longing as if he had lost something very important and wasn't sure if he was ever going to get it back. That made her sure that Yugi really couldn't heal the heart. If he couldn't heal his own, then he probably wouldn't be able to help anyone else with theirs.

"How much time will you need to heal?" she asked once.

He looked surprised at first before smiling gently. "Sometimes time can heal. Sometimes it can't," he shook his head. "There are some wounds which will scar and you will have to carry those scars all your life. Mine is kind of like that, but I'm trying my best to heal. To become whole again."

It wasn't until they were fifteen when Anzu found what Yugi's wound was. Yugi showed her a golden box and the pieces inside, and he had such a sad look upon his face when he told that the puzzle was his most cherished treasure and that he had been trying to complete it for eight years now. He didn't need to say it, but Anzu knew that once that puzzle would be completed, Yugi's mental wound would begin to heal.

"It's really important to you, huh?" she asked with a worried smile.

"Yes. It's the most important thing I've ever had," the boy answered sadly.

In the next day, Yugi came to the school with a wide smile in his lips and completed puzzle hanging from his neck. Anzu wasn't sure what had happened, but she knew that Yugi would never again be the same - and whether that was a good thing or not, she wasn't sure. All she knew that Yugi deserved that happiness after waiting for it for so long.

---

Here's some more of this. This seems to have turned into a series of sorts... not that it's a bad thing. Many thanks for the reviews.


End file.
